Equal opportunity. Meritocracy. Fairness. What if these core tenets of modern, liberal societies no longer applied? That’s exactly what 3%, Netflix’s first Brazilian original series, sets out to answer.
Equal opportunity. Meritocracy. Fairness. What if these core tenets of modern, liberal societies no longer applied? That’s exactly what 3%, Netflix’s first Brazilian original series, sets out to answer.
In 3%, youths who turn 20 have a shot at being part of the three per cent that make it to the Offshore, a utopian haven of wealth and abundance. All they have to do is pass the Process, a grueling trial that tests for intelligence, wits, and cunning. Fail and they’re sent back to the Inland, where poverty, squalor, and violence run rampant.
Candidates are brought up to believe that the Process is just and fair, and give thanks for being given the chance to participate. The crux of the matter is that the Process separates the wheat from the chaff, a literal expression of a world that believes there are only two types of people – those with merit, and those without.
Ultimately, 3% raises pertinent questions about our own world. We profess to be equal societies, but are we really? We think we’re a classless society, but that’s probably not really true either. And while everyone technically has a chance at betterment, the hoops those at the bottom have to jump through are so trying, that those who make it may as well be only three per cent.
Text: Koh Wanzi /Picture: Netflix
